More Spin Than A Washing Machine

Just over a year ago, Gordon Brown said he wanted to get away from short term slogans, spin and soundbites and get on with the serious business of politics and governing Britain.

The sad reality is that in the financial year 2007/08, Mr. Brown’s government spent a total of £391 million of taxpayers money on promoting both itself and its activities.  This £391 million represents an increase of £54 million over the previous year, a rise in spending on government propaganda by a whopping 16%.   In response Conservative Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office Greg Clark MP said “At a time when families and businesses are having to cut back, Gordon Brown is increasing spending on promoting himself and his government.  This is back door state funding of a near-bankrupt Labour Party.”

So much for your promise of less spin and more substance Mr. Brown, all this proves is that you and your party have more spin than a washing machine.

Nelson Town Council Meeting – 27th August

On 27th August I attended the monthly meeting of Nelson Town Council.  At this meeting we agreed that we would incorporate a 15 minute session at each full council meeting where members of the public could come and ask questions of councillors.  We feel that as the first level of democratic representation we should be fully open and accountable to our residents. 

At the meeting, Town Councillors were formally introduced to our new Town Clerk, Mr. Martin Harrison.  Mr. Harrison is a highly experienced former local government legal executive and has recently taken early retirement from his position of Conveyancer in a company of solicitors.  Mr. Harrison is a former Chairman of Governors at Haslingden High School and is highly regarded for his ability to raise finance from a variety of sources to fund local community projects.

The next full meeting of the Town Council will take place on Wednesday, 8th October at 7pm in the Wilson Room at Nelson Town Hall.

Chancellor’s Shocking Candour

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has well and truly let the cat out of the bag regarding both the perilous state of the economy and the tragic state of affairs at the Labour cabinet table.  

In his shocking interview with the Guardian, the Chancellor has admitted that Britain faces the worst economic prospects for 60 years.  The open and honest truth about the economy was actually revealed by Professor David Blanchflower, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday.  Professor Blanchflower said that the economy had “stopped”, that there were no jobs for school leavers, that employers had pretty much stopped hiring new staff, that pay rises would either not happen or would be below inflation and that there was the real prospect of two million people being out of work by the end of the year.  Professor Blanchflower added that real action on interest rate reductions was needed now, before it is too late.  Perhaps Mr. Darling’s comments were a panic move in order to attempt to counter Professor Blanchflower having told the real and honest truth about the true state of the economy.

Perhaps even more startling was Mr. Darling finally admitting that Labour had p*ssed off the public.  That Chancellor is the understatement of the decade, is it really any wonder that people are annoyed with you?  Your government has ripped off private pension holders with swingeing and unwarranted tax raids on pension providers’ profits.  The cost of living is rocketing and the government shows all the signs of not having a care in the world.  The housing market is in a mess because you continue to dither over stamp duty.  You meddled with the tax system and ensured that ordinary working people, those who could least afford to pay, paid more tax than ever.  You are planning to tax a massive number of family cars off the road (residuals are now so low that dealers won’t take some models in part-exchange).  And the worst of all is that you have taxed, spent and borrowed the country almost into oblivion.  Excuse me for telling it like it is, but whilst the economy was growing, you should have been saving money for the future, but you weren’t, instead you were cutting loose and spending money like it was going out of fashion.

Mr. Darling has revealed that certain members of the cabinet are jostling for position.  The Chancellor doesn’t name names, but I immediately think of people like Ed Balls, David Milliband, James Purnell, Douglas Alexander and Yvette Cooper for some quite inexplicable reason.  It would appear that they’re all eyeing up either the top job itself or the treasury at the very least.  With all this going on, you could be forgiven for asking yourself whether these people are capable of making serious decisions, or whether they are really attending programming meetings for Radio Ga-Ga?

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Cllr Iqbal?

The debate about the obvious unwillingness of Gordon Brown to visit Pendle has sadly kick-started the petty and vindictive comments of Labour leader Cllr Mohammed Iqbal towards Pendle’s Prospective Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson.

It would appear Cllr Iqbal doesn’t see the funny side of Mr Stephenson touring Pendle with a large cardboard cutout of the Prime Minister.  The fact of the matter, Cllr Iqbal, is that by not visiting Pendle it is the Prime Minister who has turned himself into a joke.  Cllr Iqbal has accused Mr Stephenson of resorting to ”Childish pranks” to make his point, what a short memory the Labour leader seems to have.  I recall him telling Mr Stephenson to “Pack his bags and go home to Cheshire” only a matter of a few months ago, now if that isn’t childish, then I don’t know what is. 

In the next breath, Cllr Iqbal is attempting to assure everyone in Pendle that ”we’ve all done well under Labour.”  Excuse me Cllr, have you forgotten the raids your government has made on private pension funds, the 10p tax fiasco and the astronomical cost of living?   Who do you think you are kidding Cllr Iqbal?

Why Won’t Gordon Brown Visit Pendle?

A year ago, the leaders of the three main political groups on Pendle Council invited Prime Minister Gordon Brown to visit Pendle and see the real situation here for himself.   Mr. Brown seems to be in perpetual hiding, because he hasn’t yet shown any interest in visiting Pendle whatsoever.  I for one believe he’s frightened to come here, because he might not get an especially warm welcome from local people.

Mr. Brown is not likely to visit Pendle, as by doing so he’d be unwittingly supporting Gordon Prentice MP, a man who has made it his business to vote against the government on just about anything and everything.   Gordon Prentice is a man who has seemingly always followed his own personal political agenda, not that of his party, indeed he recently demanded the Prime Minister resign the Labour leadership.  Any possible visit by Gordon Brown could therefore be embarrassing for the Prime Minister, embarrassing because he’d be coming to Pendle to pretty much lend his support to a man who hasn’t exactly been loyal toward his party’s leadership and embarrassing because he’d be lending his support to one of his fiercest critics from within his own party.  As Pendle’s Prospective Conservative MP, Andrew Stephenson puts it “It’s hardly surprising he (Mr. Brown) hasn’t visited.”

The reality is that this government has consistently failed to address many serious issues that continue to face many people in Pendle.  Gordon Brown’s government has actually made people’s lives worse in Pendle with the 10p tax debacle and by its apparent ignorance of the huge rises in the cost of living having to be shouldered by local people at a time when pay rises are limited and there is the real prospect of redundancies.  I seldom agree with Councillor Lord Tony Greaves, but when Cllr Greaves said that he believed Gordon Brown and the government don’t care about either Pendle or East Lancashire, I feel he told the real and honest truth about the Labour elite.   The government don’t care about Pendle or East Lancashire one little bit, all they care about is themselves.